Social Defeat Stress (SDS) in Mice: Using Swiss Mice as Resident

Abstract

[Abstract] Due to the high prevalence and great economic impact of depression, studies with animal models have been increasingly used to identify neurobiological mechanisms associated with this disorder. However, many animal models use stressful conditions that are not consistent with what we observe in the modern human world. Examples are the chronic unpredictable stress and the electric shock model used in rodents. It’s well established the social stress as the major cause of depressive disorder in human, in this way a social defeat stress model was recently standardized and can induce depressive-like behavior of social avoidance, a typical human depressive behavior. In this model, mice are exposed on consecutive days to an aggressor mouse, suffering brief periods of physical aggression followed by longer periods of visual and olfactory (sensory) contact and, as a consequence, a relationship of social submission is characterized. Thus, the objective of this work is to describe a social defeat stress protocol using swiss mice as resident, also describing valuable procedural suggestions that will help researchers to reproduce the model easily.

The rostral ventromedial medulla modulates pain and depression-related behaviors caused by social stress

“…41,49 Here, we replicated previous studies showing that CSDS causes social avoidance, hyperalgesia, anhedonia, and behavioral despair. 5,15,20,22,35,51,52,57 It is noteworthy that CSDS has inherent limitations, as it is ineffective in female mice because the majority of female rodents do not exhibit spontaneous aggression. Furthermore, male residents tend to establish sexual bonding rather than engage in aggression toward a female intruder.…”

“…Chronic social defeat stress is an ethologically relevant and widely used stress model to mimic the symptomatology of human depression and chronic pain. 5,15,20,22,35,51,52,57 We used a CSDS protocol as previously described. 22,51 Briefly, for 10 consecutive days, the experimental mice were exposed daily to an unknown hostile/aggressive retired male breeder CD1 mouse for 10 minutes.…”

“…5,15,20,22,35,51,52,57 We used a CSDS protocol as previously described. 22,51 Briefly, for 10 consecutive days, the experimental mice were exposed daily to an unknown hostile/aggressive retired male breeder CD1 mouse for 10 minutes. After this brief period of physical contact, the stressed C57BL/6J mouse and resident CD1 mouse remained for 24 hours in the same cage separated by a clear perforated plexiglass divider, which allows only sensorial contact (ie, visual, olfactory, and auditory).…”

“…The social interaction test (SI) was performed 24 hours after the last SDS session under red light conditions as previously described. 22,51 The test was performed in 2 consecutive 150second sessions separated by a 30-second interval using an open-field arena. The first session, called "no-target" involved placing an empty perforated plastic enclosure in the center of the interaction zone.…”

The BDNF-TrkB Pathway Acts Through Nucleus Accumbens D2 Expressing Neurons to Mediate Stress Susceptible Outcomes

“…In this study, we used three different stress paradigms, namely, CSDS, CWDS, and SSDS. The first one is a standardized procedure ethologically relevant and is widely used to study stress outcomes in male mice ( 6 , 7 , 20 , 30 – 32 ). The second is a standardized procedure used to study stress outcomes in female mice, which chronically witness a co-specific male mouse undergoing social defeat ( 23 – 25 ).…”